Tony McInally’s update: 24th August 2018

Looking back to the Cambuslang game

I thought given our circumstances and playing resources available, the result was more important than the performance. We needed to get the victory to move us up the table and keep in touch with the early pacesetters in the league. This season’s league will be a marathon and it’s important to stay on the leaders’ coat tails whilst we are still getting all of our players fit and available to play. There will be many twists and turns as this season develops in terms of the league, and both the West and Scottish cups.

I felt we started the game ok and thought we were fortunate to go in at the break a goal up with a fine strike from Bryan ‘Butch’ Young. In the second half, we took the game to them and should’ve scored before they equalized after we switched off defensively in both midfield and defence. From then on, we dominated the play and deservedly scored two fine goals from Forde and young Michael McMullin from distance to give us a commanding lead. Late on you could sense our nervousness, having not seen previous games out, which saw us concede a very poor late goal in injury time.

We were glad to get the result and thought we deserved to win on the balance of play in second half. A number of our players played very well including my man of the match ‘Sena’ Niang, as well as Ewan McNeil, Danny Boyle and Adam Forde, who all had great games.

The arrival of Michael McMullin

Michael is a good young player – a left sided defensive player who was previously full time at Partick Thistle before being sent on loan to likes of Albion Rovers and Alloa in previous seasons. He has lots to learn in the game but we are happy to take him in and try to develop him into a better player. He hasn’t let himself down in any of the games so far but he knows he needs to improve his fitness, sharpness and awareness over the coming weeks to keep his place in the team.

Looking ahead to the Kirkintilloch Rob Roy game

We are looking forward to the game this weekend and provides us with another chance to win, gain 3 points and move up the league table. We welcome back a few important players this week in Mark Sideserf, skipper Paul Gallacher and Gary McCann. In the coming 2 weeks, I would expect Shaun Fraser and Danny McKenzie to be back involved too following injury and work secondment respectively. Having these players back plus potential new signings too will put us in a stronger position to compete and win games of football.

The Scottish Cup draw – home to Buchanhaven Hearts

I’m happy with the draw which gives us a home tie against team from another region. Scottish ties are always special and we hope to compete strongly, if not win the cup this season, so no lack of ambition from our dressing room. It was pleasing to see likes of Kilwinning and Beith draw each other too which means one of the big rivals and favourites leave the tournament early doors which will put pressure on them from outset of season.